Please note, your syllabus requires you to create a blog for class use. We will discuss the reasoning and use for blog in first class, but please, set-up a blog prior to class through PRblogs.org. Creation of blog is simple and FREE.

I know this may seem scary, but at the end of the course, I hope you will become more familiar with social media and how to integrate these tools with tradional media practices. I am not the only professor using blogs as a teaching tool. Take a minute to read fellow educator's post, What does blogging teach?

UPDATE: Not required, but useful. Use Bloglines or Google Reader for easy updates.

Assignment #1 for week of 23 October, 2006: Create Bloglines Account

Bloglines is a FREE online service for searching, subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, blogs and rich web content. With Bloglines, there is no software to download or install — simply register as a new user and you can instantly begin accessing your account any time, from any computer or mobile device.

Bloglines is a window to a whole new world of dynamic content that is being created and distributed over the new "live" web. You can make your own personalized news page tailored to your unique interests from our index of tens of millions of live Internet content feeds, including articles, blogs, images and audio.

Bloglines shields you from the confusion of news feed standards — RSS, Atom, and others. Bloglines allows you to search for, read and share any updates from your favorite news feed or blog regardless of its authoring technology.

Last, but not least, Bloglines provides you with the tools you need to begin creating your own clip blogs and blogrolls. Become a publisher, share your thoughts and opinions!

About the Author

By day, Lauren 'L' Vargas, Ph.D. is a digital dragon wrangler assisting organizations with their community and communication strategies. She is currently a 'One by One' Digital Fellow at the University of Leicester - delivering a "practical approach to building digital literacies within specific museum contexts" for UK and US museums.

Vargas has 19 years of experience with digital transformation in regulated industry (including: federal government, health care / insurance, and financial services). Vargas enables organizations to engage with the communities they serve by fostering authentic relationships built on trust and dynamic dialogue.